Hello! Sorry this is very messy, I'm sort of panicking right now and don't know what to do.
I've had an eventful art a level to say the least. But for one thing, my teachers have been so unhelpful. I aim to get A* in psychology and philosophy, and wanted a B in art, as my uni offer is AAB.
I have told my art teachers from around the end of year 12/start of year 13 that I need a B in art. I have emailed multiple times and asked them in class on what I can do to improve my sketchbook, as I was stuck around a C. They told me EVERYTIME 'oh your work is great! you just need to develop your ideas and show your progression blah blah' without actually telling me things I can do. I repeatedly went through my sketchbook with them page by page to see what I could do and their 'advice' was always unclear. Now I might be biased with all this, as I hated art from the moment I started in year 12. I had no set plan for anything and was just going through piece by piece. I chose it because I did it in GCSE and thought art a-level would be cooler and more fun than the GCSE and I was so wrong. I've suffered from mental health issues for a while and being in that art classroom made me feel sick.
Around October in year 13 my art teacher came up to me and said that since he had noticed all the effort and extra hours I was putting in, I was certainly getting a B and that would be my predicted grade. He said I was at the level of a B. That was perfect! I was so happy and felt I could relax a bit and focus on my other subjects more.
Wrong! It got to my report where it said my predicted grade was a C. I was so confused and heart broken after that conversation. A week later it was parents evening, where my mum brought this up. My art teachers both seemed ashamed and guilty, and said they put me at a C because they wanted to 'motivate me' and that if they gave me a B they feared I would become lazy and wouldn't bother with art anymore. Well obviously it didn't motivate me! They apologised to me and said they'd help more.
Their idea of 'help' was one day, coming up to me whilst I had an unfinished painting and saying that with my standard of work I would never be able to achieve a B and that I should change my project to fit what they wanted me to do. Over the last 5 months of my art a-level I was dreading every lesson, every extra hour I put in. I ran out of that classroom in tears so many times. I put in so much extra work even though I hated every second of it. Even in my 15 hour art exam I cried for the whole first hour because of how much I hated it.
Cut to two days ago. An internal invigliator/ teacher? has marked our coursework and final piece. My mark for the coursework is 62 (by 2022 grading, the baseline for a B) and my final piece is 57 (a C). People who spent way less time than me got way higher. I don't get it. Was it the skill level? I put so much effort in for nothing. I think my coursework will definitely bring my overall mark down to a C. Are you joking, I'm literally like 2-4 marks off a B. I really want to look at getting my work remarked or special reconsideration? I don't know what route to take and I'm very pessimistic about this. I hate how much A-levels have burnt my passion for art, and how art is the reason I can't go to my dream uni. Any advice? sorry if theres too much rambling.